The old adage, “The dinner table is no place for politics” doesn’t always hold true when the whole family gets together for Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, the Young Democrats started a Twitter hashtag #YourRepublicanUncle to guide young liberals on sharing their ultra-progressive views with disagreeing elders, such as Hillary Clinton.
As a public service, we are offering some tips for more rational citizens. For those times when a low-information liberal says something you just can’t quite let go, we’ve got you covered with some talking points.
1. When your wild-eyed college-aged nephew insists it’s Democrats who stand up for students.
Washington State Republicans won the college tuition battle during the 2015 legislative session. Thanks to Republican efforts, the state Legislature passed a balanced, no-new-taxes budget that—among other GOP victories—included the College Affordability Program which cut tuition at the University of Washington and Washington State University by 15 percent over two years. Other state universities will see a 20% tuition cut over the same time frame. And, community college tuition will decrease by 5% starting July 2016.
On the other hand, Democrats have not appeared concerned with reversing the mess they created over the past few decades by using college tuition hikes, essentially a tax on the middle class, as a cash cow to help transfer taxpayer money to their special interest allies and key campaign donors. They initially rejected Republican efforts to lighten the college tuition burden, choosing only to trumpet support for higher education after they lost the fight. In an example of political posturing at its worst, Democrats appeared more than willing to withhold tuition cuts if it meant ensuring Republicans wouldn’t get something they cared about.
2. When your hippie-esque aunt begins checking off Jay Inslee’s talking points of why our state must implement an extreme “green” agenda.
Jay Inslee and his supporters have been peddling his extreme “green” agenda using false claims for quite some time. Inslee’s rabid environmentalist followers, seemingly without fail, point to air quality and reducing cases of asthma as a benefit.
The claim that new carbon regulatory rules will reduce asthma rates doesn’t even stand up to Inslee’s own science. The American Lung Association points to particulate matter (PM) as the primary pollutant of concern impacting asthma. A “green” plan like Inslee’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) extreme would only reduce PM by up to 0.5 percent by 2026. Just to be clear, that is one-half of one percent, ten years from now.
The reality is Washington State emits approximately 1/10 of 1% of the world’s carbon emissions. Inslee’s extreme “green” schemes would have virtually no impact on reducing carbon emissions. But, it would raise the price of gas on working families and threaten jobs.
3. When your lefty brother-in-law pulls a Harry Reid and starts bashing Republicans as Koch brother-funded politicians.
When it comes to “dark money” funding, Democrats are as guilty—and hypocritical—as it gets. As Shift recently pointed out, according to the liberal Center for Public Integrity, a Democrat-aligned dark money group known as Patriot Majority USA “collected half of the $30 million it raised last year from five anonymous donors.” The largest single donation (from an unknown source) was in the amount of $8.25 million. And that’s a PAC run by Harry Reid’s closest political allies.
In Washington State specifically, California billionaire Tom Steyer was caught illegally funneling millions of dollars into a Washington State PAC back in 2013, and had the case dismissed on a technicality by the Democrat-controlled Public Disclosure Commission. Perhaps because he got away with it, Steyer continues to play a “dark money” role in promoting Democrats’ extreme “green” agenda in our state, even lunching in the Governor’s mansion to exchange targeting lists with Jay Inslee.
Steyer and his NextGen Climate Action Committee have coordinated with our state’s most liberal activists, including the Progress Alliance of Washington, to funnel millions of dollars into Democrat campaigns. The secretive group does this through a variety of front groups like Fuse Washington, the Win/Win Network, and Sightline.
It’s unclear just how much money Steyer has managed to funnel to Democrats in our state thus far, thanks to his desire to hide his dark money. However, it is clear that Steyer plans to have a negative impact on our state’s future one way or another.
